The people's banker.

Banco Azteca CEO Carlos Septien sees money where traditionally high-flying banks in Mexico don't--the country's millions of humble workers and consumers. Part of Grupo Salinas, the conglomerate that owns TV Azteca and retailer Grupo Elektra, Banco Azteca launched in September 2002 with US$25 million and following Elektra's tried-and-true methods, which include motorbike-riding debt collectors and tiny loans to long-term customers. Septien talks with LATIN TRADE Managing Editor Greg Brown about the 70% of Mexicans who aren't yet in bank lines.

How big is Banco Azteca now?

The number of loans is about $400 million. Deposits are also $400 million. So we can say we're now able, in a small amount of time, to fund our core needs directly from deposits. We now have 2 million accounts open for deposits, and about 1.5 million loans.

A million and a half individual loans? They must be pretty small.

The average loan is about $250 or $260 per account. This is the most widely used product we have. We started making only consumer loans for Elektra products, furniture, and fridges. Then we launched personal loans, with the same exact strategy we used for consumer loans.

I understand you're expanding through other retailers. How's that going?

We've been granting in-store credit in other retailers, like H.E.B, a supermarket chain from Texas that operates in the northeastern states of Mexico, Nuevo Leon and Chihuahua. They give credit to customers, in 20 stores, who don't have credit cards and no other credit product. We are in 68 Almacenes Garcia. They sell clothes and apparel to low-income individuals. And we're in 9 stores at Home Mart in Mexico City, which is like a Home Depot. And we're pilot testing with five other chains. The thing is to be in their stores, granting credit.

Any plans to tackle the big chains, like Wal-Mart de Mexico (Walmex)?

We're doing some tests with one of them. And we're in talks with another. We're not with Walmex. We intend to visit them, but they're already doing business with GE.

How else can Banco Azteca grow, considering your low-income customer base?

This year, we expect to launch other credit products, like mortgage loans, and loans for used cars. And we expect to launch debit cards, targeting payrolls. We will work with companies directly, getting companies to pay their workers directly through our banks, using their cards at any ATM [automatic teller machine]. We just acquired 50 ATMs and we intend to grow with them.

If you're using other banks' teller machines, what about transaction charges?

We have already signed an agreement with Scotiabank Inverlat to use their ATMs as ours, for a special rate. We are analyzing which services to grant for free, and which to charge for. We are also working with Visa to offer an Electron [debit card] product to be able to charge in restaurants ... Mexico is a country in which cash is the normal way for transactions. We intend to educate our customers to not carry cash, to use their own debit cards through formal systems.

Sounds like a big jump, going from not banking at all to using a debit card in one generation.

I agree, and I think we're going through a process of education. We're using a lot of things to make sure this can happen. We're using POS [point of sale] terminals in the public markets, the little stores, [and] the small restaurants ... so people feel secure about having these electronic products and not having cash. The market we're talking about has the same demands but it needs more products marketed and directed to them.